Inspiration For The Film
On 21 May 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning in favour of a UCPI candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Tamil Nadu, when he was assassinated by a suicide bomber in the Indian town of Sriperumbudur, near Madras.
The suicide bomber, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam aka Dhanu, is widely believed to be have been a LTTE member. Dhanu was a cousin of Shivarasan, the supposed mastermind of the assassination. Dhanu wore the belt bomb with the explosive material in her lower back region and the power pack, two switches and the circuitry in front.
When Santosh Sivan, a well-known cinematographer, wanted to make a film on terrorism and about a terrorist, he chose the above events as the inspiration for his story.
The film is not a direct biography of Dhanu, as she had a whole troupe working with her, as backup in case she failed.
Read more about this topic: The Terrorist (film)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you’ve got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you’re dumb and blind.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)